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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 9 Feb 2017

Vol. 938 No. 2

Topical Issue Debate

Coastal Erosion

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney. In November 2012, I spoke here on the same issue. I described the situation then as critical and severe. Since then, there have been promises of funding, work and solutions. Yet, all that has been done has been makeshift barriers paid for and constructed by locals in fear of their lives of being swept away.

During the past week, we have had high tides and easterly winds. Social media and online news sites show videos of waves crashing over Clontarf promenade and dramatic seascapes in Dublin Bay last week. What failed to get any attention was the further washing away of the dunes and remnants of the broken boardwalk on the Burrow beach in Portrane. Portrane is near here. It is a lovely part of Fingal, a picturesque part of the Dublin region. There are videos on Facebook showing live and in real time the power of the sea and how close it is getting to homes and businesses in Portrane. If the situation was critical and severe in 2012, it is nothing short of an emergency now.

In 2014, the OPW made funding available for works to protect dunes in the Burrow, Portrane. The then Minister of State, former Deputy Brian Hayes, visited the location to see the destruction of the dunes. I ask the Minister of State to come out next week, if possible. I would love him to see it first hand. It would be helpful to him in coming to some conclusions about it. I am outraged that Fingal County Council did not draw down the funding. Fingal County Council would refer to some confusion on it. I am seeking an urgent meeting with the council next week to discuss its role in finding a way forward. The residents of the Burrow are annoyed at what they see as a total lack of interest in their plight on the part of the council and the Government.

I ask the Minister of State to take a direct role in protecting the community of the Burrow in Portrane. I want him to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation and allocate a senior official to work with Fingal County Council to install urgent measures to deal with the worsening situation in Portrane. I know of no other community which is so close to being breached and washed away. We cannot continue to bang our heads against the brick walls of Government or local government to find a solution. We need direct action now. Funding must be found to deal with the situation. We have had studies, plans and strategies but no meaningful action.

Residents have filled one tonne bags with sand to provide a barrier. They toiled hard on many mornings to fill these bags, knowing these efforts would be in vain once a serious storm hit the beach and the high tides returned. Those bags have been rendered useless. They were breached last week. The sea has reclaimed dunes and land and there has been no help from the authorities. We need direct action by the Government, and we need it now.

I thank Deputy Brendan Ryan for raising this important matter. Coastal erosion is a natural and ongoing process which takes place around the entire coastline. Coastal erosion may threaten human life and infrastructure, such as roads, and may undermine and cause damage to properties. However, it should be recognised that coastal erosion also has beneficial effects to the local environment, such as providing natural nourishment and supply of sediment to adjacent beaches. The primary objective of Government policy on coastal protection is to ensure that in areas identified as being at greatest risk of damage or loss of economic assets through coastal erosion or flooding, appropriate and sustainable measures are identified by local authorities to protect those assets and, where such measures are economically justified on cost-benefit grounds and compatible with all required environmental and other statutory requirements, they are implemented subject to the availability of resources.

The OPW has undertaken a national assessment of coastal erosion, including erosion rates, under the Irish Coastal Protection Strategy Study, ICPSS. The results of the study have been published on the OPW website. The study has surveyed and assessed the coastal erosion risk along the entire national coastline, and the information is available to all local authorities to enable them to develop appropriate plans and strategies for the sustainable management of the coastline in their counties including the identification, prioritisation and, subject to the availability of resources, the implementation of coastal protection works both of a structural and non-structural nature.

The local authority may carry out structural protection works using its own resources. If necessary it may also put forward proposals to the relevant Department for funding of appropriate measures depending on the infrastructure or assets under threat. Since intervention within a coastline area may cause problems further along the coast, any proposed intervention measures are best developed in conjunction with a formal coastal erosion risk management study that has carefully investigated the problem and explored the full range of management options.

Portrane was assessed under the Fingal East Meath flood risk assessment area study as a coastal area for further assessment. The detailed engineering analysis found that no properties were at risk from coastal or fluvial sources in this area for further assessment, AFA. Therefore, optional assessment was not undertaken as it is designated an AFA of low risk in the draft flood risk management plans.

The Office of Public Works operates a minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection schemed, under which applications for funding from local authorities are considered for up to €500,000 in each instance. Funding for coastal erosion risk management studies may also be applied for under this scheme. Funding of up to 90% of the cost is made available for projects which meet the eligible criteria.

Fingal County Council applied for and was approved funding of €57,800 under the scheme in 2012 to carry out a coastal erosion risk management study at Portrane to Rush which included Burrow beach. The funding was drawn down in 2013 following completion of the study.

Following the severe storms of the winter of 2013-14, total funding of €200,000 was provided by the OPW to Fingal County Council under the Government decision for repair works to coastal protection infrastructure, which included projects at Burrow beach. The OPW has published guidelines for coastal erosion risk management measures and funding applications under the minor works scheme available on the website.

I assure the Deputy that the OPW will continue to work with Fingal County Council to address coastal erosion issues in the county over the coming years having regard to the available resources and in the context of the framework for State investment in this area that I have outlined.

Thank you, Minister of State. You did well on time. I did not think you would get through it, but you did. Deputy Ryan, you have two minutes.

I am absolutely dumbfounded to hear the Minister of State’s comments. I know the material has been provided. It simply is not the case that the area is of low risk and there is no home at risk. That is why it is important for the Minister of State to come out and have a look. I feel as if I am repeating myself from four years ago. The works previously carried out to safeguard the sand dunes on this coast line were done in good faith and with the best intentions but they were not long-term solutions. Comprehensive and possibly cross-departmental approaches are required to provide the best possible protection for this coastline. We need to ensure that all possible solutions are given consideration and that a long-term solution is put in place. A coastal erosion study was carried out, as the Minister of State indicated. Hard and soft engineering solutions were assessed but no meaningful action was taken and no progress has been made. In fact, it is worse than no progress as it seems things have gone backwards. The clock is ticking and the tide is moving in.

I do not know anyone from Burrow who has any faith left in the institutions of the State to protect their homes. The people of Portrane are not only concerned; they are at breaking point. The have witnessed the ongoing erosion of their coastline and can visibly see the dangers they face. They will be appalled at the reply the Minister of State has read out. They do not want their concerns to be dismissed on the basis of negative cost-benefit ratio analysis. The council says that no money has been forthcoming at national level to fund solutions.

I walked Laytown beach lately and could see robust rock-based protective measures in place to deal with what was obviously a similar problem. Therefore, it can be done. Most of us look at weather forecasts to decide which coat to wear or check the times of high tide to go fishing. However, the community in the Burrow, Portrane check these forecast to see if they will have a home the following day, contrary to what the report of the Minster of State claims. Are we going to wait until we are dealing with homes disappearing into the sea before we address this issue? Are we going to allow the situation to develop to a point of catastrophic emergency? I hope not. I hope there is no policy of managed retreat at play. This is a serious matter and it needs urgent attention. This matter must be addressed with the urgency it deserves.

The reply I have given is factual. The studies were done and money was provided. I suggest that because the local authority and the Office of Public Works are involved in this area, I ask that the local authority meet the officials of my Department to see what projects can be done. While it is okay to suggest spending money, I note we simply cannot spend money willy-nilly when a study is done and the cost-benefit analysis is not proven.

Is it okay to see a whole community washed away?

Let me finish. If a cost benefit can be met and if properties are at risk, that is part of the analysis. My experience thus far within the Department is that if a project is brought forward by the local authority and if it meets the criteria then it will get funding.

Flood Risk Assessments

In October 2016 I submitted two parliamentary questions on flooding in east Cork, predominately Midleton. The Minister of State is probably well aware that in 2015, many areas in east Cork were totally destroyed. The main road from Cork to Waterford was blocked for several weeks. The area I want to speak about specifically is an area in Midleton, namely, Towns Park, Mill Road, Midleton. I brought to the attention of the Minister of State a catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, study carried out in 2013. It advised on the measures to address flood risk in this area and in Towns Park, Midleton, in particular. The area was subsequently flooded leaving three homes completely uninhabitable.

This means three families cannot live in those houses to this day. I hope the Minister of State will be able to answer my question. The CFRAM study cost a good deal of money. I have read the study on numerous occasions. I provided the Minister of State with two copies of it, one to his pigeon hole and another by hand. Page 16 of the report predicted where the flooding would materialise. The report estimated the volume of water, which reached heights of over 1 m in the area at the time. Pages 26 and 27 of the study proposed preventative recommendations and measures. Recommendations included a landscaped embankment and the associated costs for carrying out the works. The range was between €15,000 and €25,000. That is not a great deal of money in comparison with two two-storey homes and one bungalow.

If possible, can the Minister of State tell me who is responsible for carrying out these works? Who has sole responsibility for ensuring these studies are acted upon? Why were the recommended preventative measures not carried out?

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter today. I want to start by assuring all communities, including those living in Cork, that the Government is actively planning and taking every feasible measure to manage flood risk.

Ireland is more prepared than ever to tackle flood risk from the significant investment being made to tackle flooding. This investment includes 38 major projects completed at a cost of approximately €285 million, resulting in 7,700 properties being protected. A total of 11 flood defence schemes are currently under construction. Five are due to be completed this year protecting a further 2,000 properties. A total of seven schemes are scheduled to commence this year and a further 20 schemes will continue at the design and development stage. A further 6,100 properties in more than 400 locations are being protected from localised flooding completed under the OPW's minor works scheme. A further 200 projects have approved funding. An area of 650,000 acres of agricultural land is protected through the programme of maintenance of 11,500 km of river channels by the OPW. Planning guidelines have prevented building on flood zones since 2009. The CFRAM core strategy for addressing significant flood risks nationally is the catchment flood risk assessment and management programme. A total of 300 areas at potentially significant risk of flooding nationwide, selected as areas for further assessment, have been assessed under the programme, the purpose of which is to implement the EU floods directive and national flood policy. For the purposes of the national CFRAM programme, the country has been divided into six regional study areas, including the south-western and Shannon CFRAM study areas, including the two AFAs, Milford and Charleville, which are within the Shannon CFRAM. There is a total of 35 AFAs in Cork city and county.

The CFRAM programme is the largest flood risk management planning programme ever undertaken by the State. To date, the CFRAM programme has included detailed modelling and mapping in each of the 300 AFAs, including surveying and modelling of 6,700 kms of channels; the publication in 2015 of approximately 13,000 individual flood maps for public consultation; and over 400 public consultation days held in the AFAs throughout the CFRAM programme at which the CFRAM teams met and consulted with local representatives, residents, business owners and community groups at key stages on the flood maps and potential solutions. It has now identified feasible flood relief measures to provide protection to 95% of flood risk properties in the 300 CFRAM areas. The details are set out in 29 draft flood risk management plans which I have published since July 2016 for public consultation, which is now complete.

The national CFRAM programme is being undertaken by the OPW in partnership with its consultants, local authorities and other stakeholders. Cork County Council has been actively involved and has fully participated in progress groups and advisory groups for the CFRAM study. The OPW has also on two occasions made presentations to elected councillors on the draft flood risk management plans, one at the beginning of the study and most recently on 16 September 2016. The current position on the CFRAM study is that the draft flood risk management plans are now being finalised, taking into account the important and constructive submissions made through the public consultation held in 2016. When this process, scheduled for spring 2017, is completed, a prioritised list off feasible measures, both structural and non-structural, will be drawn up to address flood risk in an environmentally sustainable and cost-effective way. The plans will then be submitted for approval to the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform and subsequently for adoption by the local authorities.

In the Cork area, while the Government is committed to prioritising future planned investment by the benefits that accrue, it has to be acknowledged that Cork has already benefitted and continues to benefit from significant investment. Only a few weeks ago I launched the public exhibition of the planned Cork city scheme. This is the largest flood defence scheme ever constructed in this country. The major capital investment commitment, which the Cork city flood relief scheme represents, is part of the significant capital funding envelope of €430 million which has been allocated to the OPW to spend between 2016 and 2021. The Cork city scheme will add to the very significant programme of investment in flood relief in Cork. Two further schemes are under way in Bandon and Skibbereen and six further schemes are planned for Blackpool, Glanmire, Douglas-Togher, Clonakilty, Ballymakeera and Midleton.

I will hold the Minister of State there. His time is up.

I need 30 seconds.

The Minister of State will have two more minutes to respond.

I will be brief. I thank the Minister of State. I have developed a bit of a knack of speed and power reading so I will get to it straight away. The answer is very welcome and I welcome these major projects. I also welcome the minor ones. In the conclusion of the Minister of State's written reply, he says in the last line: "In the interim I am satisfied that the identified and assessed flood risk in Cork is being appropriately addressed." However, it could not be addressed if we are doing CFRAM studies that are not being acted on. It goes back to my question. This study, which came out in 2013 and was sanctioned by Cork County Council, tells us exactly where the flooding was going to happen and what the preventative measures were but nothing was done. This is only one particular study and there are a number of studies out there. We have three families that have not been in their homes since 2015. There have been no preventative measures. It is grand telling us what will happen, how to prevent it and getting us the plan and telling us the cost but it is then shelved. If that will happen with this one, I feel something else will happen. I know it is not directly the fault of the Minister of State but I need to get answers for these people because it is very unfair and unjust that this has been sitting on somebody's shelf after so much money was spent saying exactly what happened and what will happen. It happened and three families are now homeless.

I apologise to the Minister of State for interrupting his flow. I guarantee him two minutes now without interruption.

The Deputy read out my last line. In the interim, I am satisfied that the identified and assessed flood risk in Cork is being appropriately addressed. CFRAM is a process that has been going on for a number of years. When there were reports prepared, they had to be tested and modelled and maps had to be drawn. The answer I have given the Deputy sets out that the CFRAM process is now coming to an end. When that process has been completed, 300 projects will be ready to start. They will be taken in a prioritised order based on a lot of different criteria. It is a major structural plan for flood relief for the next ten years. What has been done is unprecedented. What has been done has taken about two years off the planning process of any of these projects. Every project I have seen that has been done in the past has taken six to seven years to bring from inception to construction. We will now be short-circuiting that. Of course, in the meantime, people have flooded. We will not get to everybody in the same day. If I was to follow the Deputy's logic, as soon as a report becomes available, we would jump in and do something. I have great sympathy for people who flooded. They flooded all over the country. It is as a result of the volume of rainfall we get. I must assure people in the public that flooding is being dealt with in a coherent way at long last. We have a whole-of-Government approach to this and we will be dealing with each of the areas once they are approved by the Minister.

I thank the Minister of State for his response and thank the Deputy for his question.

May I respond to that? I have one tiny response to that.

I will allow the Deputy 30 seconds. I am not supposed to let him in.

It is a two-year period. This report was in 2013. It is 2017 now and still nothing has been done and those houses are still lying idle. I do not mean to be disrespectful to the Minister of State. I will give him the report if he wants it. It might be a bit of a help for the next one.

I reject the assertion that nothing has been done.

Nothing has been done on this report.

The Deputy has had his say. I want to put on record that I reject that. Work has been done in order to prepare projects to go to construction. A lot of work has been done on them and will continue to be done right up until spring when they will be published.

I totally accept that but not on this report.

There will be no further debate. I was generous to even let the Deputy in.

Hospital Services

In effect, I seek an update on progress and funding of a narcolepsy clinic in St. James's Hospital. For those who perhaps are not acquainted with the condition, it is a very serious one. It has a very serious effect on people's lives and restricts their future hugely. Not only are they unable to regulate their own sleep patterns but their personalities can change drastically. There are around 70 to 200 estimated cases in the country. The State says there are between 70 and 100, but the Society of Unique Narcolepsy Disorder, SOUND, estimates that as many as 200 people of the 800,000 who were given the Pandemrix injection have this condition. It is quite hard to assess the number of young people and teenagers, in particular, who have this condition because many of the symptoms are often misidentified as hormones or changes in the lives of teenagers and young people. It is quite hard to quantify the number of people it affects. What we can say is for those who are diagnosed it is a very serious condition. Without help or treatment, those who are affected by it can have greatly reduced potential in their own lives. There are no cures but things can be made more manageable. One of the only true ways of diagnosing it is through a multiple sleep latency test, which must be done in a special overnight sleep test facility. Currently, there is only a handful in Ireland, with the Mater Hospital being the most used. There is no public sleep centre in Ireland. For people under 16, Temple Street hospital is often used. We are unique in Europe in that we are the only country without such a facility. Such a facility was committed to as far back as 2012. Funding was pledged for it. As such, I am bringing forward this Topical Issue to ascertain exactly where we are on that. It is my understanding that critical decisions are being made now on the allocation of budgets.

I have a few specific questions. Is the funding still in place? When will the project proceed? Are there timelines in place for its delivery? Has hiring of the specialists who will be needed for such a facility commenced? I understand that a leading expert in this area, Dr. Catherine Crowe, is involved in this and she has said there is a clear link between the Pandemrix vaccine and the condition. She and a great many others who are involved, and even people such as Mairead McGuinness, MEP, have highlighted the urgent need for Ireland to bring about this facility, fund it and to address this important problem. I would appreciate if the Minister of State would give me an update on that.

I thank Deputy Rock for giving me this opportunity to update the House on this very important issue. Narcolepsy is a chronic brain disorder and people with this disorder experience periods of extreme daytime sleepiness and sudden, irresistible bouts of sleep that can strike at any time. These sleep attacks usually last from a few seconds to several minutes.

I acknowledge the impact on the 1,500 to 1,600 patients with narcolepsy in Ireland. Narcolepsy can greatly affect daily activities. People may unwillingly fall asleep while at work or at school, when having a conversation, playing a game, eating a meal or, most dangerously, when driving or operating other types of machinery. In particular, I am aware of a specific group of individuals who claim to have developed narcolepsy as a result of receiving the Pandemrix vaccine during the 2009 influenza pandemic. Many of this group were children at the time of their diagnosis.

As many of the patients are now becoming adults, there have been calls from advocacy groups recently for the setting up of a centre of excellence for narcolepsy based in St. James's Hospital, which would include a nurse specialist, a dietary service, a psychological service and a full service between St. James's Hospital and the children's hospitals.

A business case for a service for adults with narcolepsy was submitted by St. James's Hospital as part of the overall 2017 Estimates process. St. James's Hospital is part of the Dublin Midlands hospital group. Any proposals for the funding for the narcolepsy clinic in St. James's Hospital have to be considered as part of the hospital group's overall priorities for services across the group and with regard to resources available. While no developmental moneys have been allocated for this proposal in the HSE's national service plan for 2017, I understand that work is under way on the proposed centre of excellence.

It is a priority for the Department of Health and the HSE that the individuals and families affected by narcolepsy receive appropriate health and social care supports. Therefore, my Department engaged with the HSE, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Social Protection to ensure the provision of a range of services and supports on an ex gratia basis.

The HSE's advocacy unit acts as a liaison with other service providers and Departments to facilitate access to required services. It is in regular contact with the individuals affected. Regional co-ordinators have been appointed to assist individuals by providing advice, information and access to local services.

The ex gratia health supports include clinical care pathways to ensure access to rapid diagnosis and treatment; multidisciplinary assessments led by clinical experts; counselling services for both the individuals and their families; discretionary medical cards for those who have been diagnosed to allow unlimited access to general practice care and any prescribed medication; ex gratia reimbursement of vouched expenses incurred in the process of diagnosis and treatment; and physiotherapy, occupational therapy assessments, dental assessments and dietary services all on a needs basis.

I again acknowledge the impact on the lives of these people and their families affected by narcolepsy and reiterate my commitment to the ongoing provision of appropriate services and supports.

I thank the Minister of State for addressing these concerns. I know that, like myself, she cares about those who are affected by this condition and that she places a great deal of emphasis and importance on resolving this issue. Even though this condition affects a relatively small number of people, it has had a serious impact on their lives. As the years are progressing and as these people are getting older, we are beginning to see how it has a deep impact on their lives.

I welcome the Minister of State's response. I am grateful that progress is being made. I would like to see more progress being made throughout the year. I would appreciate if I could be kept updated on this matter because it is an important one for the families to whom I have spoken. I will speak to them again having got the Minister of State's response and I hope they will be satisfied also. I believe we are making progress on this important matter. If the required level of progress is made, I will be delighted with that, but if it is not, I will be happy to raise this issue again in the future.

I know the Deputy, like myself, would welcome the fact work is under way on the proposed centre of excellence. I do not have the level of detail on the timelines that the Deputy asked for, but I will be happy to provide him with that separately.

I thank the Minister of State and the Deputy for their co-operation.

Urban Renewal Schemes

I wish to raise an issue, which I have raised on at least eight occasions previously, namely, the unfinished business of and lack of progress on the Naas town centre development. This project has been ongoing for ten years. As I mentioned previously, its unfinished town centre development is not a great addition to or advertisement for the town or a great sign of it being a case of business as usual in the town. Naas was one of the best business towns in the country. It has been severely hampered as a result of the stalled development of its town centre site. In recent times a number of businesses have closed and now there are rumours of other businesses closing. This has all come about as a result of a lack of footfall because people need to have a reason to come into the middle of the town, to want to stay in it for a while and to be able to conduct their business there.

Despite that this issue should have exercised the minds of those in the Department with responsibility for the environment and in the Department with responsible for local authorities, and I am sure that it does, it has not done so successfully. Having brought this issue to public attention on more than one occasion, I am now getting to the point of beginning to become impatient. They say that everybody has a limit to their patience but to beware of those who lose their patience.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, for coming into the House to take this matter. I realise that the Minister and the Minister of State in the Department with responsibility for the environment are not available for reasons over which they have no control.

The raising of this Topical Issue matter gives me a unique opportunity to lay down what I believe needs to be done now as a matter of urgency. The Minister and the Minister of State with responsibility for the environment need to call together the players involved, get them around a table, inquire of them what is happening and why matters have not progressed at a greater rate than they have heretofore. If an opportunity was ever presented to people who want to get on with this business, now is the time given that the rural development programme was recently announced and it presents an ideal opportunity to become involved in the badly needed redevelopment of the town of Naas.

As I mentioned previously, the visual appearance of a business town or any town has a significant impact on what happens in that town. While developments are taking place in large supermarkets adjacent to the town and drawing people into those areas, it is to the exclusion of the particular area to which I am referring. The business people of the town have been concerned about this matter and they will begin to lose confidence and to worry about what is happening and if the town centre will be left as it is. Naas is not a town down in the far end of the of the country and obviously people are very concerned about what is happening in those areas and anxious to ensure their towns are reinvigorated, but Naas town is within 25 miles of the centre of this city. There is no excuse for allowing the current lethargy to continue.

Now is the time to electrify all those involved, to bring them all together and let them tell us exactly what is happening and why we have not seen a situation arise in the recent past whereby somebody would have said it is time we got something going here again.

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Coveney, I will take this Topical Issue. I thank Deputy Durkan for raising it.

As indicated in previous replies to parliamentary questions and in previous Topical Issue debates, the management of stalled development in Naas is a matter for Kildare County Council in the first instance. With processes under way involving NAMA and arbitration, it would be improper for the Minister to become involved. Nonetheless, I am informed by Kildare County Council that the securing of a satisfactory conclusion to the development of the Naas town centre site has been a particular focus of its efforts over the past number of years. In this context, the council, on foot of arbitration procedures, has successfully completed an agreement with one of two site owners relating to the provision of roads infrastructure to service the Naas town centre site. The arbitration case relating to the second site owner remains to be heard by the property arbitrator. Kildare County Council understands that the hearing in this case is scheduled for April 2017.

In parallel with these arbitration cases, Kildare County Council has also been involved in ongoing discussions with the owner of the Naas town centre site and his agents with a view to advancing development of the site as early as possible. The council continues to encourage both the financial institutions that have a controlling interest in the site and the owner of the site to either apply for planning permission for development on the site or to offer the site for sale on the open market. This matter was discussed at a meeting in Kildare County Council on 25 January 2017, and I am informed that there has been no change in the position since the Minister's last reply to Deputy Durkan on this issue.

The appointment of proper arbitrators is a matter for the Land Values Reference Committee, as provided for under the Property Values (Arbitration and Appeals) Act 1960. While I have no function in this matter, it is understood from the committee secretary that, as regards resources available to deal with arbitration matters, there is currently one full-time property arbitrator and, following a competitive process undertaken by the Courts Service on behalf of the Land Values Reference Committee, seven part-time property arbitrators were retained from 25 August 2014 on contract to be available to undertake arbitrations where, due to conflict of interest or volume of work, the permanent arbitrator was not in a position to undertake the arbitration.

I understand also that the full-time property arbitrator was assigned to deal with the application that is the subject of the case raised by the Deputy and that the reference committee understands that the matter has not been held up by virtue of the arbitrator assigned. I am sure that if the Deputy requires further information on the matter, the committee, if contacted directly, would be happy to engage with him.

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I say simply this: the time for action has come. We have done all the talking. This has been going on for ten years, and that is long enough. The softly-softly approach adopted by the local authority is no longer acceptable. The local authority is deemed to have all the responsibility in this area. Therefore, it is time to bring all the bodies together and find out who is stalling, why the stalling is taking place and why it has gone on for so long. We have already waited too long. There are several property arbitrators, as the Minister of State said - at least seven - all helpers. If there is a problem or some logjam in that office, we should deal with it now. There is no use waiting for another ten years.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has drawn particular attention to a certain part of Italy, with great acclaim and great admiration. The leaning towers of Naas have brought nothing but ridicule to us, as public representatives, and, through no fault of the people who live there, to the town itself. I do not care whose feelings get hurt in this business. Enough is enough. Time marches on. It is time now for those who have responsibility to come forward, make a clean break and let something start as and from now. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue again, I thank the Minister of State and I appreciate the Acting Chairman's forbearance in the course of the debate. However, I hope I do not have to bring this matter to the attention of the House again. Enough is enough. Now let us see some action from all those who are responsible and who are doing the town of Naas a great disservice.

I recognise the Deputy's concerns and those of the people living in Naas. I understand his frustration regarding the fact that the issue has gone on so long but I assure him that I know how a town centre can be a magnet for communities and can draw people into it. However, as indicated earlier, it would be inappropriate for the Minister to become involved or make any further comments on the matter while a number of processes are under way. Regarding the availability of only one individual arbitrator across the entire State and the insurance backlog, the Minister has no role in this matter, and I am informed that my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, has no official role in the matter either. The appointment of a property arbitrator is a matter for the reference committee. This is a statutory committee consisting of the Chief Justice, the president of the High Court and the president of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland under the Property Values (Arbitrations and Appeals) Rules 1961. It is the reference committee that is charged with appointing one or more persons as property arbitrators.

I again concur with what the Deputy has said and I will bring his concerns to the attention of the Minister, who, unfortunately, could not be here this evening.

Go raibh maith agat, a Aire Stáit, for having stepped in and go raibh maith agat, a Theachta Durkan. I thank the four Deputies and the various Ministers for co-operating with the Acting Chairman. We kept within the time limit, which is very satisfactory.

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